Leaders are Readers: Book of the Month – March

This month, I continue the trend with giving you a book to look at which will be of use to you. As I mention time and time again, leaders are readers and also, to earn more you must learn more.

With that in mind, this month’s book is calledBounce by Matthew Syed. Matthew is a former professional table tennis player from the UK and this book is all about the myth of talent.

Often society/media likes to promote this idea of amazingly talented people. Be that sports personalities, musicians or anything else. But the true is, that the talent that is displayed is really the result of both hours and hours and hours…. and hours and hours and hours of hard work and a number of other serendipitous factors that play a part.

People often think of Mozart as this super talented composer, composing masterpieces at the age of four. Well, although he had a talent – for sure, that is a romanticised version of the truth. Let’s also remember that his father was also a composer and exposed him to his talent at a young age, and Mozart’s first pieces weren’t that great. He most notable work started when he’d already completed his 10,000 hours or so work.

If you have ever been disheartened at not being talented at something then take heart and take this book onto your reading list. Natural world class talent is cultivated and developed. It’s not intrinsically there. Yes, there is a natural propensity for someone to have more ‘talent’ at one thing or another, but also, for this talent to be fully realised takes a lot more than what you think.

Check out the book and let me know what you think. If you’ve already read it, what did you think about it? Let me know below.